Topband: antenna analyzers

[Wes Stewart]

I can now verify that the FA-VA5 does just fine on my 160 meter inverted-L.

As an aside, we've had some rain here in Tucson lately and I've observed a 
decrease in the feedpoint Z of about 5 ohm due to increased ground 
conductivity.  Welcome, but I know it's temporary.

Wes  N7WS



On 10/12/2018 1:35 PM, Wes Stewart wrote:
> I can vouch for the AA-55 Zoom, although it is not without flaws. I live 5.9 
> miles from a 50KW BC station on 1550 kHz.  On my 160-meter inverted-L they are 
> 70 dB over S9 on a calibrated K3, that's 70 dB above -73 dBm or -3dBm. As long 
> as I don't sweep through that frequency, the analyzer is unfazed.  As an 
> aside, I have yet to find a low cost SDR that will stand up to this.  I had to 
> return a RSP2 Pro that even with BC band filtering folded up like a cheap 
> suitcase.
>
> My N2PK VNA works fine as does the DG8SAQ VNWA.  I just last night finished 
> building a DG5MK designed FA-VA5, which I suspect will do okay.  It will run 
> using the VNWA software too.  Good thing, since so far, the standalone 
> interface is wanting, but that could be my failing.  (It's really tough to run 
> an instrument this powerful with just three push buttons)
>
> Note that all of these are vector analyzers.
>
> Wes  N7WS